Former white ruler Smith says he is stripped of citizenship

(28 Mar 2002)

March 27th, 2002
1. Ian Smith, former Rhodesian prime minister, walks out of his house
2. SOUNDBITE: (English) Ian Smith, former Rhodesian Prime Minister:
"Well, it's (referring to his passport) been confiscated. I've been told I've lost my citizenship. This is unacceptable, its quite illegal. I was born in this country 83 years ago, and I have all my life only been a citizen of Rhodesia, and then a Zimbabwe passport. I accept certain countries in the world where if people commit a crime, then the penalty is they lose their citizenship, but I have never committed a crime in my life, and never been charged with a crime. So on what basis have I lost my citizenship."
3. Smith walks away, talks with postman

FILE - March 10th, 2002
4. Various of Smith casting his vote in the 2002 Zimbabwe presidential elections

STORYLINE:

Zimbabwe's last white ruler, former prime minister Ian Smith, has been stripped of his Zimbabwe citizenship and passport by President Robert Mugabe's government.

Smith, 83, the leader of Rhodesia, as Zimbabwe was known before independence in 1980, said authorities in Harare refused to renew his Zimbabwe passport, leaving him stateless.

Smith said officials at the Harare passport office refused to meet with him after informing him his passport was not being renewed ahead of a scheduled trip to Britain and the United States next week.

The son of a Scottish immigrant, he was born in western Zimbabwe and headed the white minority government after his Rhodesia Front party severed ties with Britain, the former colonial power, in 1965.

According to Smith he renounced claims to British citizenship in 1984, but did not renounce again last year under new rules passed by President Robert Mugabe's ruling party banning dual citizenship.

Under the new law, even those who did not possess foreign passports were required to renounce all rights to foreign nationality. By ignoring it, Smith is still entitled to British nationality through his British-born father.

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